January evokes mixed messages; choose positivity

Welcome to January. The first part of the month (through Jan. 19) is represented by the zodiac sign of Capricorn, the sea goat. Aquarius, the water-bearer, takes over on Jan. 20.

 

On the surface, January is dark, dank and dreary as well as long. Sports broadcaster John Facenda said: “It’s the January wind that rattles old bones.” (My bones are definitely showing their age.) 

January is also the “month of empty pockets,” said Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, a beloved French author and thespian. “Let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer’s forehead,” she asserted. 

“Y’all know how long January is – it never ends. It’s also cold as bricks. And the sun never comes up. January is awful. Please, abolish it,” requested Michael D. Sykes II, a sports journalist with USA Today. 

Yet, there are other philosophers who see January as a new beginning, offering opportunity for optimism. 

Country music performer and songwriter Brad Paisley said Jan. 1 “is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one,”

Brad Paisley

 

In the same vein, Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, liked to say: “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” 

Anusha Atukorala, Christian author and public speaker, said: “A New Year has tiptoed in. Let’s go forward to meet it.”

Anusha Atukorala

 

Freelance writer Nia Simone McLeod of Glen Allen, Va., is one who believes “January is a beloved period of renewal,” and she is an upbeat contributor to EverydayPower.com, an inspirational website that stresses positivity. McLeod is fond of using famous quotations to underscore her messages.

 Nia Simone McLeod

To build her case for the goodness of January, McLeod turned to the wisdom of old Benjamin Franklin, a great American writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. He said: “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” 

Consider this observation from a more contemporary source, Steven Spielberg, motion picture director, producer and writer, who said: “Every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all of our lives.” 

Modern-day author Mandy Hale said: “Change can be scary, but you know what’s scarier? Allowing fear to stop you from growing, evolving, progressing.”

Jeff Moore, founder and CEO of EveryDay Power, is a former New York City public school teacher and a good role model to illustrate how “to welcome this chilly month of January with open arms,” McLeod said. 

Through his burgeoning motivational website, Moore stresses: “The most important thing you’ll ever wear is your attitude. Having a positive attitude isn’t wishy washy, it’s a concrete and intelligent way to view problems, challenges and obstacles.”

 

Jeff Moore

“Throughout my entire K-12 career, on every single report card I ever received, it read: ‘Jeff is not fulfilling his potential.’ You know what? They were all right,” Moore said. 

“I started studying the self-improvement sections of libraries and bookstores. I started asking myself questions like, ‘What would my life look like if I gave it 150%?’” 

“I knew what it was like to give 70 or 60%,” he said. “I made a commitment to see what I was really capable of. I want to be an example of perseverance and resilience.” 

“Once, I heard somebody say, ‘Why settle for average, when greatness is possible?’” 

“Like Gandhi said, ‘Your life is your message. Make it an inspiring one,’” Moore stated. 

One final thought comes from American humorist Will Rogers, who said: “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”

Will Rogers

New Year’s Resolutions? Blame it on the Babylonians

Historians generally agree that the ancient Babylonians are responsible for bringing New Year’s resolutions into the world about 4,000 years ago.

Writing for History.com, Sarah Pruitt of Portsmouth, N.H., said the Babylonians held an annual 12-day religious festival to celebrate the arrival of a new year that coincided with the spring equinox.

 

This marked the beginning of the spring planting season, and the Babylonians traditionally made promises to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed, such as farm implements and tools. 

“If the Babylonians kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor – a place no one wanted to be,” Pruitt said.

Sarah Pruitt

 

“These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions,” she wrote. 

At this point in the story, a young reader may ask: “What happened to the Babylonians?” In the end, they were conquered by the Persians in 539 B.C. At its peak, the Babylonian Empire controlled the “Fertile Crescent” in the Middle East, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, stretching south to the Persian Gulf. 

The great City of Babylon was located about 50 miles south of Baghdad. Most of the original Babylonian territory is now within the borders of present-day Iraq. 

In 46 B.C., Roman Emperor Julius Caesar created the Julian calendar and declared Jan. 1 as New Year’s Day. January was named for the god Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches. 

“Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year,” Pruitt said.

 

Katie Birtles, a freelance writer from Perth, Australia, noted that in 1671, Lady Anne Halkett of England wrote a diary entry that contained several pledges, which she titled as “resolutions.” One that has been frequently cited was: “I will not offend anymore.” 

Perhaps that is the ultimate personal civility challenge for humankind.

Katie Birtles

Birtles also commented that “by 1802, the tradition of making (and failing to keep) New Year’s resolutions was common enough that people satirized the practice.” 

One satirist was Thomas Walker, publisher of Walker’s Hibernian Magazine, also known as the Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, a general-interest magazine published monthly in Dublin, Ireland. 

Walker wrote a series of “joke resolutions.” Noteworthy was: “Statesmen have resolved to have no other object in view than the good of their country” as well as “Physicians have determined to…prescribe no more than is necessary, and to be very moderate in their fees.” 

Modern-day humorist Blake Flannery of Indianapolis, Ind., has compiled a list of “funny resolutions that you can laugh at before you set yourself up for failure this year.” Here are some that might tickle your fancy.

Blake Flannery

 

“Stop drinking orange juice after I’ve just brushed my teeth.” 

“Go back to school…to avoid paying my student loans.” 

“Keep it to myself that I have trouble with authority when I’m being interviewed for a job.” 

“Lose weight by stop buttering my doughnuts.”

 

“Visit the grocery more often than restaurants, especially when free samples are being served.”

 

“Borrow things more often. Return them less often.” 

(Egads. Now we’ve come full circle. Blake Flannery should prepare to be haunted by the old gods of Babylonia.) 

Have a seat, the euchre game is about to begin

Euchre is a card game that enjoys enormous popularity in the Midwest, particularly in Michigan and the Great Lakes region.

 

Mark Crocker of White Lake Township, a suburb of Detroit, tells us why. “The manufacturing background of the area dictates that there are no lunch ‘hours’ for hourly workers. You get a ‘lunch half-hour.’” 

“This is where euchre shines,” Crocker said. “Even average players can get in two games during a half-hour lunch break. Skilled veterans can get three games completed in that half hour...maybe four.” 

Dara Katz, an editor with Gallery Media Group in New York City, said euchre is the perfect game for four people to cuddle up with on a cold winter’s night. Winter lasts about six months in Michigan. 

It’s conveniently known as the “mitten state,” because its lower peninsula section looks like a left-handed mitten. 

Euchre is pronounced as “YOO-ker,” which is similar to “YOO-per,” the term of endearment given to folks living in the U.P. (Michigan’s upper peninsula).

 

Compared to the game of bridge, Katz said, “euchre is wayyyy easier to learn…and for kids, too!” Played only with cards ace through 9, each player is dealt five cards, so each hand of cards is manageable for children to hold.

 

It’s a fairly fast game played by two sets of partners opposing each other. The element of finesse is what is so intriguing about euchre, according to Katz. 

Dr. Clifton Mark of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, says what distinguishes the game of euchre is its use of “bowers.” In euchre, once the trump suit is established, the jack of that suit becomes the highest card in the deck and is called the “right bower.” The jack in the suit of the same color becomes the “left bower,” the second-highest card.

 

So, if spades is trump, then the jack of clubs “plays like spade” and outranks the ace of spades for that round. It sounds confusing, Dr. Mark said, but the rules of euchre are learned quickly. 

Sharlyn Lauby, a human resources consultant in Gainesville, Fla., said euchre has been used by small and large companies to help “break down workplace silos” as well as “build engagement” among employees across department lines. 

A simple game helps boost morale throughout the organization, she said. 

Euchre even became a “part of the corporate culture” at a Canadian software firm, Lauby noted. Playing euchre wasn’t mandatory, but every employee who did said he or she really looked forward to their scheduled weekly game.

 

The company created a euchre league, Lauby said. One of the engineers wrote a software program that randomly matched people up, with a bias toward pairing up people who hadn’t played against each other before or recently. 

“This was a great way to introduce employees who don’t necessarily work together on a regular basis,” she noted. “Games were played ‘on company time’ all throughout the day, whenever the players’ schedules could sync up.” 

Company spokesperson Braden Box said that euchre broke down walls. “You never knew who you’d be sitting down to play with – it could be the new guy in accounting, or it could be the CEO.” 

He was Paul Loucks, who said: “It was a wonderful opportunity to interact with employees. They got to know me better; I got to know them better. I hope they had as much fun as I did.”  

Lauby said: “Opening the lines of communication can be as simple as taking a short break for a quick game, like euchre.” 

More organizations should try it.

N.C.’s woolly worm predicts cold and snowy early winter

Winter has arrived, and North Carolina’s High Country region is expecting plenty of snow and cold temperatures for much of the month of January – a skier’s delight.

 

That’s the official weather forecast out of Banner Elk in Avery County issued by the champion Woolly Worm, the fuzzy little caterpillar that won the big race at this year’s Woolly Worm Festival held back in October. 

The woolly worm that climbs a 32-inch string the fastest rules – earning it the right to make the winter weather prediction.”

 

Woolly worms can’t talk, but their bodies have 13 segments or bands that are colored black or rusty brown. Each band represents one week of winter. A trained eye can “read” the bands and interpret them.

 

In general, black means cold and snowy and brown indicates milder temperatures and clear skies. There are gradations to factor in and some bands are a blend or have fleckings, offering further variation. 

The esteemed “woolly worm whisperer” of Avery County is 70-year-old Tommy Burleson, who was the 7-foot-2 center on the North Carolina State University men’s basketball team that won the NCAA championship in 1974. Burleson spent the last 28 years working with the Avery County government, retiring in August 2022 as director of planning and inspections.

 

Burleson has been associated with the festival for about 15 years now, and his interpretation for the winter of 2022-23 is: 

Weeks 1-4: Below average temperatures and snow.

Weeks 5-9: Average temperatures but not too snowy.

Weeks 10-11: Above average temperatures and clear.

Week 12: Below average temperatures and frost or light snow.

Week 13: Below average temperatures and snow. 

That computes to 11 out of 13 weeks of good to great skiing weather. 

The owner of the 2022 winning woolly worm is Emma Denton of Gastonia, a junior at Appalachian State University in Boone. Denton said she found her woolly worm near a portable toilet unit, so she named it “Porta Potty.” The victory netted Denton a $1,000 cash award. In all, more than 1,000 woolly worms competed this year. 

Burleson said woolly worm racing is both and art and a science. “What you want to do is get the worm warmed up in your hand just before the race. Keep it warm. Then when you put it on the string, the worm is active and its little feet are moving.” 

Roy Krege, one of the early promoters of the festival, added: “Worms have a natural defense mechanism. When they feel threatened, they ball up. So sometimes, if a person just picks up the worm out of its cage and tries to put it on the string, it’ll ball up and fall right off.”

 

“A lot of people will blow on the worm to get it started, but don’t blow too hard, or it’ll fall off the string,” Krege said. “People have even started bringing straws to puff their worms all the way to the top!” 

The woolly worm is the larva of the Isabella tiger moth. During autumn, woolly worms scurry about on the ground, in search of sheltered areas to hunker down for winter – under logs, boulders or structures (even portable toilets). 

In May, the insect will emerge from its cocoon, transformed into a colorful moth, somewhat yellowish, orange and tan with black accent markings.

 

Banner Elk is about 355 miles away from Morehead City, but Carteret County still falls under the same magical woolly worm spell…expect slightly milder weather here, however.

The Bethlehem innkeeper deserved respect

One of the featured contributors to the collection of Christmas stories published in The Mailboat in the early 1990s was Capt. Josiah William Bailey II of Morehead City, N.C. 

These small storybooks are now of a prized collection at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island, located in Down East section of Carteret County, N.C. 

Capt. Bailey, by bringing humor to his writing, made a case that the Bethlehem innkeeper was not a Christmas curmudgeon. 

Rather, the innkeeper was a fellow who should go down in history as a “kindly, generous good man,” Capt. Bailey asserted.

 

After Baby Jesus was born in the manger, Capt. Bailey acknowledged that angels, shepherds and wise men arrived to celebrate the Savior’s birth. However, his version of the story includes the presence of a few other notable yuletide characters. 

As Capt. Bailey told it: “A little boy with a drum came by a-beating the dang thing and singing ‘a-rumpa, dum, dum, me an’ my drum.’ While all this was going on, a dern reindeer with a red light up his nose was prancing around outside trying to direct traffic.”

 

“The folks up there in the inn must’ve thought it was an all-night tent revival out back there. But the innkeeper never uttered a word. He just put up with it. This sort of thing went on for several days, people coming and going, milling around, angels singing, sheep a-bleating and that youngern and his drum…a-rumpa, dum, dumming.” 

“Seems to me,” Capt. Bailey said, “when you think seriously about it, he (the innkeeper) should be revered, not reviled (for having ‘no room in the inn’).” 

By offering shelter in his stable, the innkeeper “was the first to offer hospitality, kindness and compassion – in short, LOVE – to Jesus, even while in His mother’s womb, and he did it not knowing it was HIM, not in hopes of any reward (earthly or heavenly).” 

“It was an act of unself-conscious, sublime purity. Impelled only by a sense of identity with fellow humans in distress, he did what he was able to do in the circumstances; it was a generous and benevolent gesture from the heart.” 

“That is the very embodiment of the message for which that little baby was born, lived and died. The innkeeper, whose name is unknown…was the foreshadow of the ministry of the haloed infant born in his stable.” 

“This year, as you hear and sing “Away in a Manger,” remember kindly the generous, good man whose manger it was,” Capt. Bailey said.

 

Capt. Josiah Bailey was a fun-loving coastal North Carolina guy who chose a laid-back lifestyle. His primary business was operating a 55-foot sailing vessel to transport tourists from Morehead City over to Harkers Island and out to Cape Lookout National Seashore. 

Capt. Josiah Bailey died in 1993 at age 71. Among his many accomplishments was qualifying as a storyteller worthy of being included in the exclusive group of “Fish House Liars.” 

Bailey’s father, Josiah William Bailey, represented North Carolina in the U.S. Senate from 1931-46. 

 

Today, Carteret County’s most celebrated storyteller is Rodney Kemp of Morehead City, one of the charter members of “The Fish House Liars.” 

One of his favorite Christmas yarns, also included in the The Mailboat collection, embraces the rural heritage and culture of Carteret County.

 

The story begins on the Harlowe farm of Harry Lee Taylor, located in the “northern reaches of Carteret County.” 

As Rodney tells it: “Mr. Harry Lee Taylor’s shoulders hunched forward to protect against the bone chill of an early 1900s December morning. He whistled for his horses, Old Baldy and Charlie, to commence the annual trip from Harlowe south to Beaufort.” 

The buckboard would carry him about 14 miles into Beaufort to “do his buying and trading for his family’s Christmas gifts.”

 

“Mr. Harry always said ‘buggy time was thinking time’ and his thoughts this morning were on his wife, whom he always referred to as Miss Aleta, and his nine children.” 

Taylor pulled to a stop in front of the Carteret County Poor Home and Orphanage, located some three miles outside of Beaufort. He noticed a young boy standing away from the others. He was sobbing. 

Rodney said that Taylor approached the caretaker and inquired about the boy. The caretaker said the boy arrived about a month ago; both parents had died unexpectedly. “He’s 12, small for his age. He don’t eat much. He just stares down the road and cries. Name’s Norton.” 

Taylor adopted Norton on the spot, telling the boy: “I need somebody to help me drive that team of horses. You interested?” 

In Beaufort, the first stop was at the Davis House on Front Street, where Miss Sally Ann Davis had hot baths in the back for a nickel. “Norton needed about a quarter’s worth,” Rodney said. 

After a day of shopping in Beaufort, Norton guided Old Baldy and Charlie back to Harlowe. It was late when they arrived but one of the Taylor boys was still awake. He peeked out his window and announced: “Daddy’s letting someone drive his horses. You’ve got to be mighty special to get to drive Old Baldy and Charlie.” 

“Mr. Harry lifted Norton down off his seat and placed him on the porch in front of his wife…and said: ‘Miss Aleta, for your Christmas present I’ve made you the mother of a fine son.’” 

“She smiled that approving smile of love and said, ‘I thank you for a painless delivery.’” 

“Then, she opened her arms and took Norton into her heart as great tears of Christmas joy burst from both of them,” Rodney wrote. 

“Of all of Harry Lee Taylor’s five sons, the old-timers used to say that Norton was the one who was most like him.”

Christmas of 1941 disrupted by outbreak of World War II

Thanks to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island, a gathering place in Down East section of Carteret County, N.C., for preserving collections of “Christmas Memories” that were published from 1990-92. 

The stories were submitted by readers of The Mailboat, a much-loved publication dedicated to the heritage and culture of Down East. Now, the museum is endeavoring to introduce new generations of readers to these treasured holiday traditions that bind together the county’s communities, rural neighborhoods and seaside, fishing villages.

 

The late Alida A. Willis of Harkers Island commented that the Christmas of 1941 was like no other for the people of Carteret County, because World War II was being fought right off the North Carolina coastline in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Alida began her essay with events leading up to Dec. 7, 1941, and the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. 

“In Carteret County change had been slow, almost imperceptible, until world events began to loosen the paralyzing grip of the Great Depression of the 1930s,” Alida wrote. 

“In gradually increasing numbers, fishermen had put aside their nets and skiffs and snappers to take up jobs with steady wages now available in a nation gearing up for war. With others from across the county, they helped to build the giant military bases at Camp Davis, at Camp Lejeune and at Cunningham Field (later named Air Station Cherry Point).”

 

“There were few doubts that war was coming,” she wrote. “But for many, life continued much as it always had in this small, relatively isolated community. Until that December at Pearl Harbor.” 

“Notes made from contemporary issues of The Beaufort News tell the story of those pivotal days when an old familiar order was ending, and an unknown world was pushing in on the tides of war,” Alida said. 

“In October 1941, M.T. Gaskill and his crew from Stacy made a record catch of 145,000 pounds of spots, netting them more than $3,000.” 

Alida reported that the A&P Store was advertising its 8 O’Clock Coffee for 19 cents a pound, bread for 8 cents a loaf, four bars of Lux soap for 24 cents and cabbage for 4 cents a pound.

 

“Marines were arriving at the Onslow base of Camp Lejeune, and the first colors were raised at Montford Point. In Morehead City, Navy landing boats were under construction at the Bell-Wallace shipyards. (The business had been formed by John F. Bell and was later purchased by Charles S. Wallace.) 

“And in a move affecting thousands of persons on the North Carolina coast, the U.S. Coast Guard was transferred to the U.S. Navy.” (President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s announcement was significant, because the United States was not yet at war, but more and more American ships were nevertheless becoming war casualties while attempting to provide necessary supplies to Great Britain and the Allies.)

 

In December 1941, the News had reported that a USO Council was formed in Carteret County…and then came the big story.

 

Alida wrote: “WAR” was the 3-inch headline above the masthead in the Dec. 11 issue of the News. The front page carried a photo story of a Beaufort boy at Hickam Field (the Army Air Corps station in Hawaii): ‘Sergeant Harry Tyler, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Tyler of Beaufort, cabled his parents today that he is safe. Young Tyler is an aerial photographer and bombardier aboard a Boeing Bomber.’” 

The same issue of the newspaper listed the names of 15 local men in the Pacific war zone as well. 

Yet, there was still local news to cover. The newspaper also ran an article about Capt. Kelly Willis, master of the Harkers Island mailboat, who had shot and killed a seagoing bear about halfway between Beaufort and Harkers Island near Shep’s Shoal. 

Another article written by Aycock Brown told about North Carolina’s smallest school – in the Village of Portsmouth that served four pupils. 

Navy sailor Edwin Bonner McCabe was reported to be the first Carteret County casualty of World War II. He was serving aboard the U.S.S. Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor. His parents were William Z. McCabe and Annie Virginia Teasley McCabe. Edwin’s grave marker is in the Wildwood Community Cemetery.

 

Alida said that in the same issue of the local paper, “little Jimmy Modlin’s letter to Santa Claus was published. The 6-year old Beaufort boy declared he had been a good boy, that he liked very much going to school every day, and would Santa please bring him a pair of gloves, a wagon, a Lone Ranger gun with caps and a coat. And, “PS – Please remember my brother who is in the Army.” 

* * * *

 “On that Christmas Eve in 1941,” Alida wrote, “all the county lay dark and watchful inside the line of fragile barrier islands of the Outer Banks…Portsmouth Island, to the east, deserted save for the few families at Portsmouth village and the Coast Guard Station there… and to the south, Shackleford Banks – once a whaling community of some 500 people – long deserted, barren, silent….” 

“But across the inlet at Fort Macon, a small band trudged in silence up a rough, dark hillside – a local choir to sing for troops garrisoned inside the fort. As the traditional old carols rang out into the cold, still darkness, a pinpoint of light appeared across the empty moat, then another, and another. One by one, the soldiers of the 244th Coast Artillery had come to stand atop the worn parapet, their presence betrayed only by the glowing tips of cigarettes.” 

“Descendants of the old Cape Bankers had come to offer comfort and cheer to these strangers who, like the county’s own, stood in peril and far from home that Christmas Eve.” 

“While westward, along Bogue Banks, the Salter Pathers stoically waited – and watched – and stayed their place. Further west, a lone Coast Guard Station kept vigil at Bogue Inlet. 

“And in Beaufort, safe inside the barrier, little Jimmy Modlin dreamed the Christmas dreams of children everywhere.” 

Alida A. Willis’s Carteret County Christmas story of 1941 is a treasure to be passed along from generation to generation.

 

Just FYI: On July 13, 1944, The Beaufort News ran a front-page article about Staff. Sgt. Harry S. Tyler being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal with two oak leaf clusters for heroism and meritorious service in the air. The ceremony was conducted in Wilmington, N.C.